More importantly, Costolo noted that Twitter will launch an advertising model “soon”. He went on to say that soon means most likely early next year. He continued, “It (the advertising) will be fascinating, non-traditional, and people will love it.”

The final comment from Costolo noted that partners like TweetDeck will be able to partner in the advertising operation.

It seems like no matter who writes about Twitter and advertising, the concept is merging advertising inside the stream (even if it’s displayed separately) and that the ads should be targeted towards the content of the tweet.

I wonder what happens to the paid advertising programs (like the one Izea runs) once Twitter launches their own.

• Kaltura Integrates its Open Source Video Platform with Artivision’s Video Monetization Technology – Kaltura
• Use Centrl to pick a place to meet a friend – Centrl
• Dual Launch: I Love Traffic and I Hate Traffic – Armor Games (these two are very addictive)
• Major Update to Glue for Internet Explorer – AdaptiveBlue
• Getsatisfaction.tv: New Look, New Content, New Feed – GetSatisfaction

Lately I’ve noticed issues with email delivery to my Yahoo Mail account. Sometimes emails are delivered on time, but many are delivered late. And the delayed delivery seems to vary – I can’t put my finger on it. Even the exact same email can be delivered in real-time on one test but another test takes half a day to arrive.  At first I thought it was only emails coming from Rackspace servers as they noted there was an issue a couple of weeks ago with mail delivery. But this past week, the delayed email delivery seems to be coming from all sides.

One interesting note – mail that gets forwarded from my gMail account always seems to come immediately. The same message sent directly to my Yahoo Mail account sometimes is delayed.

Yesterday it caused an issue as newer emails showed up before the previous emails which made for a very odd exchange with a client.

Do you use Yahoo Mail? If so, have you noticed any delivery delays over the past few weeks?

Janine’s post notes that one of the company’s competitors, iContact, ran an ad in the conference hall during the Dreamforce conference. Just one small issue with the ad…iContact spelled their competitor’s name wrong! If you are going to create ads that hit hard (maybe even considered attack ads) against your competition, you better make sure that the ads are perfectly executed. Otherwise you will end up with pie on your face like iContact has.

• Scanning Coke or Water? Why? - Big In Japan
• New advanced features give you absolute control in analyzing your cash flow – moneyStrands
• The Do’s and Don’ts of Presentation Fonts – SlideShare
• Profiting Across Search Networks: Expanding Your Reach to Microsoft adCenter – Clickable
• A Friendly Suggestion to Our Competitor (this is an awesome post) – VerticalResponse

MatchupCamp organizer Ed Costello notes, “MatchupCamp — matchmaking for startups – is all about startup
networking, creating a place for ideas and talent to meet. MatchupCamp has the sole objective of bringing together people looking to start, expand, or join a startup in New York (and the tri-state area).  If you want to get your hands dirty and build something new, this is the place.”

If you are looking for a job with a startup in NYC, you better be at this event. And if you are planning to look for help for your startup, be ready to clearly explain what your startup does and why someone should want to join the team. Just like finding that special someone at a speed dating event, both sides need to see interest.

MatchUp Camp II will be held at the For Your Imagination studios on December 8th. You can register here – Ed notes that he is looking for a few sponsors to help with some minor expenses.

Last night I received an email from Izea founder Ted Murphy that basically addressed my suggestion. It was perfect timing as Izea launched their updated disclosure requirements earlier in the day. You can read their disclosure update announcement on the Izea blog. They are calling the update a “sandwich disclosure”. You can see their sandwich image below. Basically they now require their network of paid bloggers to disclose at the top and bottom of each post that the content is sponsored/paid. I am glad to see this change – let’s hope they can enforce it.

My only suggestion is around how they handle the disclosure technically. The required content is a block of HTML. Why not switch it to a simple Javascript include so that it can be changed/adapted at a global level going forward. If a change needs to be made, it can be handled in one Javascript include rather than on each individual post. I can’t wait to see this change rolled out on the paid blogger’s blogs.

Izea notes that their system checks for the disclosure messages and rejects any posts that don’t include the required notations.

– I wonder which part of the sandwich is the real opinion part :)

You can read the posting on SocialSpark (that’s Izea’s posting service) where British Airlines outlines what they require to be included in the post. The paid post provides for $15 in earnings although I believe some Izea posters make more than what is listed.

It’s interesting that the posts from Jordan and Meghan basically follow the required script from British Airways exactly. Is that where the “real opinion” comes from? One requirement is that the post is more than 200 words; Meghan’s comes in below that at 186 words. Both bloggers provide a small button to note that the post is paid although it is at the bottom of the post. I know Izea founder Ted Murphy talks about the importance of disclosure is his network’s paid posts which is a good thing. One change I’d like to see is that the button is moved to the top and clear language is added to the top of every post noting that the post is paid. You may never even see the button on the two blogs because of the non-traditional layout that the NonSociety site employs.

Meghan begins by noting, “In scouring the web for travel deals, I came across a promotion that British Airways is having in November called the World Sale.” What’s interesting here is that I didn’t realize that when people are looking for travel deals they search on SocialSpark. I am a travel deal hunter like no other and now I have to remember this the next time I am planning a trip. Meghan “found” pricing for the special although she didn’t have to look far as the pricing is listed on the direct link from the Izea website. She does include her opinion that she enjoyed her flights on BA and that her dream destination is Dubai. The posting did require her to note where her favorite destination is. I wonder if they had required her to note her favorite soda – would she have included the word Pepsi in the post? I actually think Meghan made a mistake with her links and SocialSpark won’t even be able to report any clicks back to BA.

Jordan does a better job of making a full post out of the ad. Jordan runs a good amount of paid posts. Jordan includes her favorite destination and I like how she makes sure to include the word “Upgraded” per the post requirements. She does an decent job at making the post feel “real”. Jordan ends her post by stating that her next overseas trip will be on BA. It will be interesting to read her review after the next flight.

This campaign would have read better as an advertorial than to try to jam in 1-2 sentences of “opinion” around what is clearly a nearly 200 word ad. I’ve said for a long time that, employed correctly, advertorials could work well for bloggers. And over the past 6-9 months we are seeing more blogs running this advertising format.

If you are new to SocialSpark and Izea, check out this video overview with CEO Ted Murphy from last year.

Paid posts, sponsored reviews and paid shilling has been a hot topic in the press recently. The FTC is requiring disclosure beginning next month. This past weekend there were a variety of pieces written about mommy bloggers. Steven Hodson takes a look at the issue and notes, “If you are going to do nothing but write high praises about all the stuff you have gotten for free don’t call yourself a blogger of any kind – you’re a shill.” This is something I’ve questioned for years now – show me paid bloggers who continue to get work when they provide a negative paid reviews. To-date my questions have gone unanswered. Steven wrote a follow-up post about the importance of honesty.

I am working on an indepth opinion post about this topic which I hope to have finished within the next week. I’ve spent a good deal of time on paid post analysis and have some interesting findings to share. I very much enjoy debating this topic from all angles.

Today I noticed that the CityFlitz website is back with the following unfortunate message:

Twenty startups are involved in the media-equity program to-date and all are in different stages of development.

Any company can apply for the program as long as they meet the criteria set forth by Seven Brand Ventures. The main criteria is that the startup has not appeared on any television stations. It appears that the media buys that will be used for this program will be remnant slots.

Regarding one of the startups in the program, Deutsche Startups notes (translated), “At Outlet Online Shop Sneakerloft can already draw a first conclusion: Since the campaign began three months ago are in the Web store, according to ProSiebenSat.1 has already received over 10,000 orders.”

The story concludes by noting that this program is a win-win for both parties. The television stations fill their open ad slots and the startups get free television advertising with a small equity position in return. This program could also lead to future partnerships between both parties as well.

• Doodle connects calendars and works now with Lotus Notes – Doodle
• Two new JimdoBusiness Layouts – Jimdo
• Super Gluer and Glue Crew Stickers – AdaptiveBlue
• Comments: New Translations Available – Disqus
• Announcing Zoho as Online Spreadsheet Partner – Zoho
• 5 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me (about starting a company) – Bluyah Development Blog
• You Don’t Know Jack About Software Maintenance – Communications of the ACM

• Brand new design – Sobees
• Print your Photobucket photos with QOOP – Qoop
• modu Moving Forward – modu
• Why Advertise Online? Here are 7 Important Reasons – Startup Your Online Advertising
• edocr Launches “edocr Exclusive” an exclusive club for our customers – edocr
• AddThis Now Supports 198 Link Sharing Services – AddThis
• What drives online collaboration in a company? – OneHub

From a customer perspective, the new machines are faster and use less paper than the old clunkers.

The old lottery machines used a landline to connect to the main center to transmit the lottery ticket information. It appears the new machines use a Sprint wireless card for data transmission. The top retailer in the state was delayed in receiving the new machines because they couldn’t get a signal underground. I was told that they were working on a new solution last weekend but haven’t been back as of yet to see if they found a solution. In my discussions with lottery retailers, all noted that at least once they had issues with the wireless access. Today one top 20 retailer was unable to redeem instant tickets due to an issue with their signal. Overall the retailers I spoke with are happy with the new lottery machines.

The title of this post comes from something I heard when I was at a newsstand last week. The new lottery machines play a very loud jingle and buzzer sound when the lottery retailer scans a winning ticket. It doesn’t matter if the customer won $1 or $1,000,000, the sound is exactly the same. If I remember, machines in South Carolina also play a jingle when a winning ticket is redeemed.

The people in line waiting to play their lottery tickets got into a discussion about the jingle and whether it was necessary. One man shouted, “this lottery machine gonna get someone killed”. The discussion centered around the idea that criminals could easily just wait for the jingle and know that a person is now walking out with more cash than they entered with.

The idea of a jingle to let someone know that they won is not needed and should be removed. There is a customer screen on the new lottery machines which displays the winning dollar amount. Sometimes a cute use of technology could lead to trouble down the road.

• Rollover to Lending Club’s new No-Fee IRA! – LendingClub
• Startup Weekend comes to NYC $75 for 2 days – Startup Weekend
• Kyte Extends Mobile Video Support To Android and Nokia – Kyte
• New Feature: Forums – LifeMojo
• New web goodies – Dropbox
• How to Buy a Television – Gliffy

Apparently there are two camps when it comes to the new retweets…one camp likes the consolidated concept and the other camp hates it because they can’t add their 2-cents to the conversation. My guess is that 90% of re-sharing on Twitter is either direct sharing of something Mashable posted or the addition of “lol”.

This past summer I wrote about how Friendfeed could generate massive income and also reach the mainstream. Sadly that never happened because Friendfeed sold out to Facebook. While it looks like Facebook wasn’t reading, this morning I started to think that perhaps Twitter was. What really got me thinking was something I read on Patricia Handschiegel’s blog. While she discusses the way Twitter defined their service in the beginning, she uses the word forum throughout the column.

Could Twitter be moving towards “threaded conversations” similar to what a forum offers? We know that the new retweet functionality will keep everyone’s “like” below the master/initial comment. We also know users want a way to add their own thoughts to the initial comment. Could the threaded conversation mechanism be a way to please both groups? Just like what any forum offers today. And just like the way Friendfeed and Facebook handle the conversation today.

All of this leads me back to the dip in usage. Forums are very sticky because the conversation is centralized and everyone wants “in”. As I’ve written about until my fingers fall off, the conversation is currently so fragmented on Twitter. If Twitter continues to move towards full-Friendfeed, it could mean increased usage.